Destiny 2just added a new tier of difficulty to Nightfalls in the form of Grandmaster Nightfalls. These Nightfalls up the difficulty level by keeping players at a Power level disadvantage and by adding multiple modifiers to punish them for making the wrong move in the highest version of the weekly strike. Whilethe activity is extremely difficultas planned, it has one major flaw that is holding it back.
The problem is not thatDestiny 2’s new Grandmaster Nightfalls aren’t hard enough or aren’t engaging enough. The issue does not lie in the gameplay, as the factor that is keeping Grandmaster Nightfalls from their true potential is the reward structure and its complete lack of replayability.
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The only real reason toplay Grandmaster Nightfalls is to earn the Conqueror titleassociated with them. To earn the Conqueror title, players must complete six Grandmaster Nightfalls within the season. While this is compelling enough for higher tier players to engage with Grandmaster Nightfalls each week, there is still no reason to replay them once players tick the box of completion.
The rewards for completing a Grandmaster Nightfall are not any different than completing the Master difficulty tier below it. There is the same high chance for pinnacle rewards, exotics, and masterworking materials. But players have no incentive to run this harder version when they could spend less time and effort running the Master Nightfall instead, so it is a bit strange thatGrandmaster Nightfallsare intentionally designed to not encourage replayability and repeat engagement.
WhileDestiny 2has employed unique loot and other rewards to incentivize players, a simple fix to Grandmaster Nightfalls could remedy this issue and instantly make this difficult endgame content worth the effort and time commitment. And that is simply to double the drops.
Recently, there wasa glitch in the Nightfall that caused double drops, and it drove people to grind the Master Nightfall that week in order to get a double chance for high-end exotics and materials. Intentionally adding double drops to the Grandmaster Nightfall could increase the desire for repeat runs of the hardest difficulty, further encouraging “mastery in builds, communication, and execution” which Bungie said was a goal for this activity’s design.
And with onlya small number of the player population even attempting Grandmaster Nightfalls, the promise of double rewards could also drive players to play the Grandmaster Nightfall who otherwise wouldn’t. It is understandable why Bungie would not want to commit design resources to create unique loot that can only be earned at the Grandmaster difficulty, especially for such a small portion of players, but simply doubling the drop rate could go a long way in driving people to the Grandmaster Nightfall.
Destiny 2is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
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